Kansas City, MO – Ryan Doumit homered from both sides of the plate and Sam Deduno tossed 6 1/3 solid innings, lifting the Minnesota Twins over the Kansas City Royals, 7-5, in the rubber match of a three-game series.
Doumit went 3-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored for the Twins, who improved to 8-4 against the Royals this season. Brian Dozier knocked in two runs.
Deduno (1-0), making his third career start, gave up one run on six hits to pick up his first win in the big leagues. He struck out four and walked three.
Billy Butler and Yuniesky Betancourt homered for Kansas City, which went 3-7 on a 10-game homestand. Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain added an RBI apiece.
Jeremy Guthrie (0-1), who was acquired by the Royals on Friday from the Colorado Rockies, allowed five runs on four hits over five innings in his Royals debut. He struck out four and walked three.
"I felt great out there. I felt strong," Guthrie said. "It'll be great to get back into a routine. It's been over a month really since I've been in a five- man rotation."
Doumit led off the second with a homer to right.
Minnesota tacked on four more runs in the third to make it a 5-0 game. Jamey Carroll singled and Ben Revere and Joe Mauer walked to load the bases with one out. After Josh Willingham popped out, Doumit hit a two-run single to left- center field. Dozier followed with a two-run double to left-center field.
The Royals got on the board in the fourth. Mike Moustakas walked and Butler singled to put men on the corners with no outs. Cain's sacrifice fly cut the gap to 5-1.
Doumit's second solo homer of the game came in the sixth. He became just the third Twins player to homer from both sides of the plate, joining Roy Smalley (May 30, 1986) and Chili Davis (Oct. 2, 1992).
"That's cool. Roy Smalley. Chili Davis. That's great company to be in," Doumit said. "I've done it in the minor leagues, but not in the big leagues."
The Twins added another run in the seventh to make it 7-1. Carroll singled and raced home on Denard Span's double to right.
Kansas City made things interesting by scoring a pair of runs in the eighth and ninth. Moustakas led off the eighth with a double and scored on Butler's homer to left.
Eric Hosmer started the ninth with a double off Glen Perkins. He moved to third on Chris Getz's groundout and scored on Gordon's sacrifice fly. Betancourt followed with a homer to left. Moustakas, though, struck out swinging to end the game.
Game Notes
Guthrie was 3-9 with a 6.35 earned run average in 19 games with the Rockies, including 15 starts, this season. He fell to 4-2 lifetime against the Twins...Kansas City went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven.
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